Logistics & Transportation: Driving Productivity Home

With technologies like radio frequency identification and supply chain automation starting to play a major role at many logistics and transportation companies, it's no surprise that their IT departments are using business intelligence tools to make business processes more efficient. Fifty-three percent of companies in the sector have plans to install more efficient business processes.

Logistics and transportation companies tend to spend a smaller portion of their revenue on IT. Companies surveyed indicate they will spend an average of 2% of their annual revenue on technology in the coming year, nearly a full percentage point decline from spending levels four years ago, but the same as last year. Two-thirds of that IT budget will go to ongoing maintenance, while only a third is expected to be spent on new projects.

Many businesses count on an efficient supply chain to reduce costs and time to market, giving them a competitive edge, so increasing productivity remains a concern for logistics and transportation companies. Nearly half of them use business intelligence tools and 47% boost network bandwidth to raise productivity. Forty-two percent have deployed collaborative software for productivity benefits.

About a third of logistics and transportation companies are protecting customer data by deploying encryption techniques, three-quarters deploy wireless e-mail, and 37% say they have wide deployments of voice over IP.

Penske Truck Leasing is the top-ranked company in this sector, at No. 11.